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Sunday, August 18, 2013

I recommend different
food ingredients to be used by patients suffering from various ailments as many
of the food ingredients contain phytochemicals which can effectively help
overcome the disease. This is also in line with the thinking ‘Food is your
medicine’.

One of the recipes I suggest
is the soup of the leaves of Moringa and moringa leaves made into ‘keerai’ along with mung dal and coconut
grating. This is very helpful in correcting Iron deficiency anemia and also
osteoarthrosis. Moringa leaves are highly nutritious and are rich in fiber, vitamins and
trace elements, Manganese, Magnesium, Lysine, Riboflavin, Calcium, Thiamin,
Potassium, Iron, Protein and Niacin. Moringa also contains all 8 essential amino
acids and is rich in flavonoids, including Quercetin, Kaempferol, Beta-Sitosterol
and Zeatin. Other interesting aspect why I promote it is because of the reason
that it can also thrive in tough climates and poor soil and can be readily
grown even outside your compound wall.

But yesterday when I was recording the medical
history including dietary habits, known allergy etc, of a patient on first
visit to our centre (65 year old lady) she said twenty years ago she developed
urticarial rashes all over the body after consuming moringai keerai. I doubled
checked on her is that rashes because she came into contact with the leaf-eating caterpillarsthat are normally seen during monsoon.
She distinctly remembered that there was no caterpillers in the trees and the
leaves were not plucked by her and there was no exposure. After long gap she
tried again she again developed the allergic reaction.

I discussed
it Vd.S.Suman Ali, the medicinal plant expert and President of CTMR, prompt
came the answer that the allergy may be due to presence of sulfur compounds
though in traces. The patient confirmed she is allergic to sulfur. So what we
think is insipid and safe could cause an allergy to someone. I write this to
inform ‘One man’s elixir could be other man’s poison’.